In Defense of Change

Waiting for William and Shelby at Denver Int.

I’d like the opportunity to balance your view of my experimentations. After all, I was experiencing more vitality than before for most of the 8months before my freak.

Quick groceries at a Richmond favourite: Elwood Thompsons

• Eat fats. I’d trusted my overzealous metabolism to discard any amount of sugar as trivial, and to avoid any fat like its origin is a public restroom on the promenade and it destination would be the end of me. The “no-fat” nutritional plan was not pure and I did ingest many good fats, but not abundantly enough to nourish mind and body.

Fats are essential for so many bodily functions, from cognitive function to digestive enzymes. I started focusing on this forbidden necessity and felt its effect to clarity of mind, sustained energy, and better overall health including better recovery, perhaps from better inflammatory functioning.

• Limit sugar spikes. I’d keep a packet of marshmallows company for a few minutes with as little guilt as there is fat content in them. Little understanding what lethargy would follow the insulin-induced response. I did take this sugar spike limiting to the extreme, admittedly, just to be sure. And I think having less insulin in the system had a radical effect on energy levels. So paradoxical to the expected energy from the sweet things in the pantry. I stopped drinking any fruit juice that I’d always loved, stopped adding jam (fruit preserve) to my tahini or nut butter, stopped ingesting anything with refined sugar in its content table actually. I got so sensitive, that if I had a few blocks of dark chocolate or two many spoons of gelato at night, I’d be wide-eyed for a while. Lying there repenting my sins.

So many individuals get caught in this cycle of sugar high, insulin low, feelings the need, repeating the cycle. I could not believe I’d lost the cravings that possessed my through my youth. Breaking that cycle is key to health. I’m convinced of it.

• Wheat-free. I did not go after this off the bat, but did abstain indirectly while trying to convert to complex nutrient rich carbohydrates. And once the irritation in my gut lining had healed, I was as sensitive as Wayne Rooney: ready to blow at any moment. Within 15minutes of having a white bread roll, I’d be bloated and very uncomfortable and focusing my attention to the nearest lavatory… So that was me; and I am still off. But seem to be alright on gluten. So thankfully did not need to be that extreme.

It is hazardous arguing pro-wheat. Other than lazy convenience. It simply is not optimal and will never be, especially not in the quantity generally consumed in Western culture in today’s age. All have a differing level of intolerance, but all stand to benefit from limiting or even banning wheat. Its been stripped of any real benefit during refinement, and if causing intestinal inflammation, its preventing the uptake of nutrients from the good foods you do consume.

You can still bake everything, still eat pizza, still have pancakes and muffins, still enjoy some bread and cheese crackers, and still have some basil pesto pasta.

• Protein. Am a little more sensitive here, as you’d have gathered in “explaining continued”. I could have done well to reduce quantity per serving more than frequency of serving. I started eating eggs religiously, every morning. I did think they had higher protein content than they did – my bad. I was eating more fish than ever, more quinoa and lentils and chickpeas, and getting in some protein from the nut stash I’d snack on. But, there seems to be a need for meat still, and especially at night, as mentioned before. Even further, it would seem as an endurance athlete, I (and you) may need to supplement with a protein powder at night, just before sleep. I’ve used both whey and a rice based protein drink, and both seem to settle well with my system. And the magical L-glutamine up to three times daily.
• Micronutrients. After trying to rearrange the macro side, I took to supplementing optimally. A multi-vitamin, mutli-mineral, Vit-C, Zinc, and my Enduren salt tablets were the regular mix. It seemed to compliment all else but then it’s hard to isolate and evaluate the change. I did get crampy and happened to read that Zinc was an antagonist to Magnesium, or something like that, so that was when I started the Enduren tablets and the underside of my feet turning to a marbled state while swimming washed away.
• Regular eating. I consciously pursued 5-7 balanced meals a day. Main meals and snacks, every 2-3 hours. More grazing than feasting. Takes a little more planning and more time for sure, but even if you are cooking once, and can eat that one meal twice in two portions, you’d be better off. It fits into the blood sugar level managing game. And speeding up your metabolism.
• De-stress and sleep. Simplification. The hated state of being. But, sure did experience such bettered nocturnal rest when within a routine. Waking without alarm, waking clear of mind and ready to go. I struggle to emphasize sleep enough, to prize it like a soaring investment stock and so be prepared to sacrifice for it.
• Lifestyle. Between the nutrition and simplification a lifestyle change was positively needed. I’d eat out at least daily, perhaps more than daily before change. To that measure it’s a loss of control and a great inefficiency. I started enjoying the grocery runs, enjoying cooking up variations at home. I bought a steamer, a double boiler (for homemade custard), my Expo Bar espresso machine, a food processor for tahini, hummus and pesto’s, and all this excitement landed onto fertile soil. It was taking charge versus allowing flow. There’s a time and a place for both, and I still really enjoy dining out, perhaps even more than before.

For a while I managed to stop nighttime admin and read or switch off instead. As a natural night owl this is at first stopping all admin, but eventually I think I got more done.

• Specific Recovery. Flippantly wearing my 2XU compression gear was as far as I’d taken recovery. I decided to make this a focal area and actively attempt to maximize recovery. I’d spend more time more regularly in the compression gear, especially when travelling. I’d do occasional ice baths when running hurt, and used Traumeel – a homeopathic anti-inflammatory.

Could and should add the naps and time of eating into this as well.

• Wattage. Spent many moneys on two hubs that measure actual work performed on a bike, and ad a whole new science to cycling training.

Along with the experimentation explained last week, it was a grand time of feeling around and asking questions. Some were flawed, and I have spent enough energy trying to identify and redirect them, but I needed you to understand the fuller more positive time I’ve been through.

This chapter followed one of frustration and disappointment and a resolve to take charge more. And perhaps that’s why the struggle has been so hard to process personally over the past two months.

But here we are about to embark on the next. I start in Boulder, Colorado, tomorrow morning. It’s the endurance sports Mecca of North America.